Attacked Inside
Your Own Building
Injury Law Made Personal®
It is an ordinary Tuesday. You get home, put your key in the lock and step inside your building. Someone has been watching the whole time, and walks in behind you before the door can shut. It happens far more often than people think, and you should not be at risk simply getting into the place you live. Illinois law asks a fair question of the people who own and run that building: was this foreseeable, and was the security reasonable? Ankin Law has fought for injured Chicagoans for over 35 years.
Call 312.600.0000 Free Case ReviewWhy a Lobby Attack Is Not Your Fault
The Situation
You have done this every day for years. Keys out, the outer door, the vestibule, the mailboxes on the left. Nothing about tonight is different, except that somebody on the far side of the street has been waiting for a resident with a key.
The Door That Never Latches
The lock has been slow to catch since spring. Everybody in the building knows it; three people have told the office. The door swings back and rests against the frame instead of closing, and it stays that way because nobody has come out to fix it.
The Person Behind You
He does not force anything. He catches the door on its way back and follows you into a lobby with no camera, a burned-out fixture over the mailboxes and no one at a desk. By the time you hear him, you are already inside the building with him.
Is a Free Consultation Really Free?
Howard Ankin answers your questions directly.
What Illinois Law Says About Building Security
Illinois abolished the old split between guests and customers. Under the Premises Liability Act an owner or occupier owes every lawful entrant reasonable care under the circumstances — and that includes the people who live there
No owner is an insurer of your safety. What creates the duty is notice: earlier break-ins or attacks at the building or right around it, a lock reported broken and never repaired, complaints that went nowhere
is the Illinois deadline for an injury lawsuit — shorter if a city or public housing authority is a defendant, and longer only for a minor
Who Pays — and What You Can Recover
The Owner and the Management Company
The entity that owns the building and the company paid to run it both answer for the state of the entrance, the lighting and the locks. Their work orders, their complaint log and their vendor invoices are the first things Ankin Law asks for.
Anyone Who Took On the Security
Illinois holds you to what you actually undertook. A management company that installed a camera, a contractor hired to repair the door, a guard service on the payroll — once they take the job on, it has to be done with reasonable care.
What You Can Recover
Medical and psychological treatment, lost earnings, and what an attack in your own home actually costs you — pain and suffering, disfigurement and loss of a normal life. Illinois reduces a recovery for your own share of fault, which is exactly why that share gets fought.
Why Ankin Law Is the Right Call After a Building Attack
The Proof Erases Itself in Days
Lobby cameras overwrite on a loop, often inside a week. Key-fob and buzzer logs show exactly who came through that door and when. Work orders and emails about the broken lock are what turn a bad night into a case with notice.
Expect to Hear It Was Your Fault
You will be asked whether you held the door, whether you knew him, why you did not look behind you. You were walking into your own home. Those questions are a strategy, not an investigation.
No Fee Unless You Win
You pay nothing to start and nothing unless Ankin Law recovers for you. The consultation is free and confidential, and there is no obligation to hire anyone. Howard Ankin has been doing this for over 40 years.
Get Your Free Case Review
Improper building security? If you have been harmed because the security where you live, work, stay or park was poor or missing, the camera and the door logs are already counting down. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation with no obligation.
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